California Pollution Control Financing Authority: name change.

Solache’s measure renames the California Pollution Control Financing Authority to the Capital Programs and Climate Financing Authority and then broadens its financing toolkit to cover a wider array of environmental and climate-related programs alongside traditional pollution-control financing. The proposal pairs the name change with expanded authority to issue rate-reduction bonds, administer new loan and grant programs, and create dedicated funds for ADA compliance, seismic safety, brownfield remediation, and employee-ownership financing, all under a strengthened governance and reporting framework. A key conditional element ties some changes to a companion measure, with operative provisions dependent on the companion bill’s enactment and sequencing.

The bill creates and programmatically expands several loan and grant vehicles, including: a California Americans with Disabilities Act Small Business Capital Access Loan Program Fund designed for ADA-related eligible costs with loans capped at fifty thousand dollars; a California Seismic Safety Capital Access Loan Program Fund for seismic retrofit projects with loans up to two hundred fifty thousand dollars; and a CALReUSE brownfield cleanup financing initiative aimed at infill residential and mixed-use development. It also establishes a California Investment and Innovation Fund and an Employee Ownership Hub to promote ESOPs and related ownership structures. In addition, the authority would adopt an expanded framework for rate-reduction bond issuances, including expedited application review, nonrefundable processing fees, confidential treatment of certain financial data, and annual public reporting to legislative energy and utility committees.

Implementation provisions position the authority to issue rate-reduction bonds secured by a pledge of utility project property and related charges, with a nonrecourse pledge and irrevocable financing resolutions. The bill creates loss-reserve arrangements for participating lenders, caps administrative costs at a prescribed percentage of initial appropriations and recaptured funds, and requires servicing agreements whereby the local utility or servicer collects and remits the utility project charge to bondholders. A statutory lien on utility project property exists and is designed to be continuously perfected, with revenues dedicated first to financing costs and reserves. The legislation also expands confidentiality rules for financing applications, requires regular reporting on rate-reduction bonds and CALReUSE activities, and broadens coordination with state agencies such as the Department of Housing and Community Development and the Employment Development Department, among others.

Beyond financing mechanics, the measure advances a comprehensive framework for organic waste policy, including targets for edible food recovery and department-identified penalties, expedited regulatory processes, rural exemptions, and procedures to regulate local compliance and enforcement. It contemplates emergency regulations to implement these provisions and requires annual reporting to the Legislature about funded projects and progress toward stated goals. The interwoven structure positions the changes as a coordinated set of programs—covering pollution-control financing, brownfield remediation, climate-related infrastructure, and waste-reduction policy—anchored by enhanced oversight and explicit sequencing with the companion measure.

Taken together, the package rebrands and enlarges the authority’s mission to finance a broad spectrum of environmental, climate, and economic-development initiatives, introduces targeted funds and loan programs, strengthens financing and governance mechanisms, and attaches a layer of transparency and interagency coordination through annual reporting and emergency-regulation authority. The interdependence with the companion measure and the conditional operative clause add a timing and sequencing dimension that could affect when certain provisions become active. The bill envisions ongoing appropriations and credit arrangements that are managed through dedicated funds, loss reserves, and servicer relationships, with consequences for public agencies, lenders, small businesses, and ratepayers as these programs progress through regulatory and implementation steps.